Robot comes close to black boxes, but volatile seas shut down search

Published: Saturday, November 06, 1999

NEWPORT, R.I. {AP} Navy experts using a robot to explore the bottom of the Atlantic heard but could not see the black boxes from EgyptAir Flight 990 on Friday because they apparently were buried under debris.

The contents of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder could explain why the jetliner plummeted into the sea early Sunday, killing 217 people.

The Deep Drone a remote-controlled vehicle the size of a minivan captured the distinct pinging sound emitted by the boxes shortly after it was lowered into the sea Friday morning. The robot came within 20 feet of where the boxes are believed to be, at a depth of about 270 feet.

Technicians on the USS Grapple found the pinger signals to be so "loud they had to take their earphones out," said Capt. Bert Marsh, Navy supervisor of salvage.

But an effort by the giant underwater robot to snare the boxes was stymied because they were apparently buried under wreckage or something else at the bottom of the sea, he said.

Work was also slowed as technicians tried to maneuver the Deep Drone closer to the boxes because visibility was blurred each time they tried to move anything to reach the boxes.

"Every time you start to dig into anything, you immediately have a puff of smoke come up," Marsh said. "You have to let the current clear that out and then go in again."

The search for the boxes was suspended at 7 p.m. when the waves reached higher than 10 feet, said Ted Lopakiewicz, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. The search was to resume when the weather improved.